Monday, February 21, 2005

Maine Firm to Help "Dynamite" Opposition to Social Security Privatization

Via Starting Point. The New York Times is reporting that the groups that ran the "Swift Bota Veterans for Truth" campaign during the last election are being hired to "orchestrate attacks" on the AARP and their opposition to the privatization of Social Security.

The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush's plan.

"They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts," said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. "We will be the dynamite that removes them."

The Maine connection comes through Rick Reed, partner at the Maine firm Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm who USA Next is attempting to hire. The firm previously did media production for the Swift Vets.